Friday Food: A Big Surprise at the End

Friday 

Short version: Tuna melt sandwiches, tuna melts minus the bread, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: I made the sandwiches for the kids, and then dumped the rest of the tuna salad right on the griddle pan with some shredded cheese to get browned and melty for A. and me. I also out some toasted pecans on top of ours, and it was very good.

Saturday

Short version: Beef goulash with carrots, leftover rice, frozen green beans

Long version: I had stew meat still in the refrigerator because I didn't have the energy to cook it on Thursday. And I had the paprika sludge left on the bottom of the bowl from our egg-dying adventure. 

So I made goulash. Seems reasonable, right? I mean, spices are expensive, and I had about a tablespoon of wet paprika to salvage.

Sunday

Short version: Easter leg of lamb, oven fries, frozen peas, chocolate roulade

Long version: Calling it leg of ram doesn't sound nearly as appetizing, but that's what it was: the last boned-out back leg of the ram A. butchered in November. I marinated it in olive oil, vinegar, salt, and lots of garlic (breaking my garlic press while preparing the garlic--HULK SMASH), then just roasted it and served it with yogurt/lemon/garlic sauce.

The roulade is a kind of flourless chocolate cake rolled around whipped cream. The ingredients are extremely simple--the cake part is nothing but cream, sugar, chocolate chips, and whipped egg whites, and the whipped cream is, well, cream, vanilla, and sugar. The execution of it is little more complicated, but it is delicious and not nearly as heavy and sweet as a standard chocolate cake with frosting.

The slices look like this:

Sort of like a Little Debbie Swiss Roll, only not gross.

I find it amusing that the recipe calls this a "big dessert," and yet my family has no trouble finishing it off. I could probably make two, and they'd still all be eaten.

Then again, I guess we do have a rather big family.

Monday

Short version: Sick-children soup, chocolate pudding

Long version: Four out of four children had a cold. Thus, soup. I used the remainder of the goulash, to which I added more onion, celery, carrots, green beans, a quart jar o pressure-canned bull meat, and a quart jar of pressure-canned beef broth. It was very good.

When a chocolate roulade is on the menu, it means that a double batch of this chocolate pudding will be on the menu shortly. Because, you see, the roulade requires seven egg whites, which then leaves me with seven egg yolks to use. The pudding is certainly a popular way to do that. 

Plus, kids with sore throats particularly appreciate cold, sweet, smooth pudding. As do we all.

Two of the four sick ones taking a very rare daytime nap together in my bed. Pre-pudding.

The only tricky part of making a double batch of this pudding is the precarious pot situation.

Believe it or not, I didn't spill a drop of this. Small victories.

Tuesday

Short version: Lamb curry, rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: We had quite a bit of lamb leftover from Easter, along with about a tablespoon of curry powder sludge from dying edge. Add onion, tomato, and the remainder of the yogurt-garlic sauce from Easter, and you have a delicious curry.

Wednesday

Short version: Shepherd's pie, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: I had made the shepherd's pie the day before, along with an extra one for our priest, and some additional meat mixture I froze for later.

Altogether, it was six pounds of ground beef. Combine that with the vegetables and tomatoes and other things that go with the meat, and there's another precarious pot situation.

It was a theme this week.

Thursday

Short version: I don't know

Long version: Wait, WHAT? I DON'T KNOW?!

No. And the reason I don't know is that I am not there.

Yeah. This just gets weirder and weirder.

See, I left this day for Arizona to see my family. My sister had a trip already planned to visit my parents, and she decided to take it despite her recent bereavement. So I decided to go to Tucson to see her, as well as my parents and my brother, who will be coming down from Phoenix.

I'm only in Arizona for the weekend, and while I'm gone, A. will be getting food on the table for the locusts. I left plenty of leftovers in the refrigerator for him. I'm sure it'll be fine. Even though this is the first time in nine years that I have not been there to feed the crew.

Oh wait, I take that back. I was gone that one night last year when I stayed at a hotel by myself. I seem to be becoming quite the gadabout.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

T.T.: An Update

I'm sure you've all been consumed with curiosity about the fate of the purple balloon. Has it been replaced by something more permanent, but less amusing? Or is it still fulfilling its admittedly strange life purpose of keeping the toilet working?

Well. Let me show you.

Over seven months later, and still as purple as ever.

I have found the fountain of youth, and it is in a toilet tank. At least for balloons.

Snapshots: Baby Plants! And Easter Prep

Happy Easter! Let's see what we have this week, shall we?

My hair was getting long, so I made an appointment with my stylist.

Meaning, I presented myself to A. with a comb and a pair of scissors and asked him to cut my hair. And of course, monkey see, monkey do.

 

Such a cute little monkey, too.

We dyed our eggs on Friday. I don't buy the kits, so I experiment with different ways to dye them with things I have on hand. This year, that was paprika (orange), curry powder (yellow), and beet skins (I expected pink, but got more of a purple).

I actually had the beet skins in the freezer from when I roasted beets in, um, January.

Yes, I thought far enough ahead in January to save the skins from my roasted beets, specifically for dying Easter eggs. I asked A. if that meant I should get a medal or be committed. "Commended or committed? That's the question," he replied.

I just thought that was funny.

Anyway.

I let the kids color on the eggs with crayons to make patterns, and then put them (the eggs, not the kids) in bowls with the spices and beet-y water.

In process. The egg on top of the liquid was a half orange, half yellow one.

The finished product is definitely less technicolor than the results from one of those kits, but I like them better.

The yellow curry (the dying agent in it is actually turmeric) makes the brightest color, although you can't really see it in this photo.

This year's Easter baskets are not as sparse as last year's Pandemic Special.

The chocolate crosses were sent by my mother just after Easter last year, and I stuck them in the big freezer until, uh, now. The random other candies are from Halloween, also stored in the freezer. Each child also gets a balloon, a package of Model Magic, and a book. The only thing I bought was the books.

And now, baby plants! Whee!

Baby beets.

Baby spinach.

Baby carrot.

Baby snow peas.

Slightly bigger baby cabbage. Toddler cabbage?

And a daffodil! Yay!

And there you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Cook Once, Eat for Days

Friday

Short version: Cheese omelets, fried leftover roasted potatoes for the kids, cucumber slices

Long version: Omelets definitely take more time and effort than just scrambling a bunch of eggs, but omelets are also eaten without complaint by everyone in the family. The same cannot be said for scrambled eggs. 

So, extra effort upfront is sometimes worth it to have a meal in which I am not listening to anyone complaining about the food.

Saturday

Short version: Breakfast sausage patties, rabbity rice, frozen peas

Long version: I had some rabbit stock left from the week before, with which I made rice. Thus, rabbity rice. Alliterative, amusing, and tasty. 

Somewhat relatedly, Jack's class did a craft last week where they had to come up with a word for each letter in "Easter," and one of his classmates, for the final "e" and "r," chose "eat" and "rabbit."

Look out, Easter Bunny. They're coming for you.

Cubby was required to pick up his room before dinner this day. He enlisted the help of his siblings by promising them a cheese party in his room after dinner for anyone who helped. And he made a poster for the party.

They did have music. Irish jigging music, because what else would you eat at a cheese party? They did not, however, have hot milk. They had water, which of course got spilled on Cubby's floor. And that is why they did not have hot milk.

Sunday

Short version: Meatloaf, leftover rice, cucumber slices, mashed squash

Long version: Sausage is my new secret weapon in meatloaf. Our good ground beef is pretty lean, so the sausage adds some more fat, as well as more flavor. It also seems to help it stay together even without breadcrumbs, which I prefer not to use.

Meatloaf was not actually my plan for dinner. I had cooked a big piece of pork butt and also had the ground beef out. I had thought to have the pork Sunday and form the meatloaves to put in the oven Monday after work, but at the last minute I switched it up.

Wild, crazy, and unpredictable, that's me.

The reason I had so much meat prepared on one day was because I worked on Tuesday this week, too, so I needed three days in a row of easy dinners.

Monday

Short version: Carnitas-style pork, bread and butter, green salad with vinaigrette

Long version: And here's the pork! Incidentally, even though it's not Tuesday, here's a tip for you: If you cook any sort of large roast that has fat on it, always save the fat. Particularly with things like pork butt, the fat rendered out of the meat is the best for frying the meat in to reheat it. It tastes like it was just made, instead of like reheated leftovers.

Tuesday

Short version: Leftover meatloaf, leftover rice, frozen green beans

Long version: I made three meatloaves, and there were two left over. So there was plenty for this night, as well as for my lunches at work this week. Meatloaf is good that way.

Wednesday

Short version: A melange of meats, sandwiches for the kids, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: Some of the leftover pork made into pulled pork sandwiches for the kids. The rest of the pork fried in more rendered fat for A. and me. A. also ate the last of the leftover brisket from awhile ago, and the last piece of leftover meatloaf.

I hadn't made curry dip in awhile (literally just mayonnaise and sweet curry powder), but it really does elevate plain old carrot sticks quite a bit with minimal effort.

Thursday

Short version: Not takeout

Long version: I really, really, really (really) was not into cooking dinner this day. I had taken stew meat out, but never worked up the necessary energy to actually cook it. At 4:45 p.m., I told A. "Get out the takeout menus. I don't want to cook tonight."

"Ha ha," he said. "April Fools'."

Yeah.

Anyway, in the absence of takeout options (of any kind), I put together a low-energy dinner from the freezer and pantry.

First, a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables dumped in a skillet, plus some extra onions from the bag in the freezer, plus a jar of pressure-canned bull meat, plus some extra frozen green beans, finished off with soy sauce, vinegar, ginger powder, and peanut butter.

I also made some rice, so it was just like Chinese takeout. Well, except for the actual cooking of it. And the dishes. It didn't produce nearly as much trash, though.

It didn't look like much, but it tasted good.

Tasty dog food.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Let the Games Begin

At 5:30 a.m., Cubby's alarm went off. Shortly thereafter, Cubby appeared, fully dressed. Of course, I asked him why he had set his alarm to go off a full hour before he usually gets up for school.

"It's April Fools'. Now I have a whole hour to get my bag of tricks ready."

My clocks are now set two hours ahead, there's a trip wire across the other boys' bedroom door, and Cubby just asked me which shoes his brothers wear to school.

I expect there to be some retaliation from said brothers today. I just hope they forget about me in all the, ahem, fun.

If you were wondering what my least-favorite day of the year is, now you know: April Fools' Day with a bunch of little boys. 

T.T.: Lean in Close

Should you find yourself with a fussy toddler whose attitude could use a little improving, I have an idea for you. Because, of course, I have had a toddler now for . . . nine years. Straight.

Yikes.

Anyway. Here's what you do.

Tell the child you have a secret to share, but to hear it, they have to lean in and let you whisper it in their ear. And then, when they're waiting expectantly for you to whisper something thrilling, you . . .

Oink like a pig right into their ear.

I have had a 100% success rate getting little kids to laugh at this. In our house, it's known as The Piggie Secret, but feel free to call it whatever you wish.

I have no idea how this started, but we're on child number four and The Piggie Secret is just as popular with her as it was with her brothers before her.

You can cover your ears, but you can never escape The Piggie Secret.

A Snapshot and a Good-bye

My sister's husband died yesterday very unexpectedly. 

He was a good man, and he will be greatly missed.

Good-bye to Uncle Shannon, who will always be The World's Strongest Man to these little boys.